Depeche Mode talk blues influence and unveil 'Heaven' video - watch

Depeche Mode have said that their forthcoming new album, 'Delta Machine', has been inspired by the blues.

Speaking to KROQ, Dave Gahn of the band said: "It definitely has a lot of blues influences, I would say closer to what we were doing around the time of 'Songs of Faith & Devotion'... Martin [Gore]'s come up with all these blues riffs."

Scroll down to watch the official video for the album's first single, 'Heaven', a track which leaked earlier this week. The video was directed by Tim Saccenti and shot in New Orleans. Gahan has said that the video was inspired by Terrence Malick's 2011 film The Tree Of Life with "beautiful yet twisted, dark imagery". He explained: "Mainly it's a performance video, which we haven't done in a long time."

Of the song, Gahan said that when Martin Gore, the band's chief songwriter, showed him the track "It was like a shot in the arm. I was like, 'Ahh, I can’t wait to sing that song'."

The single release of 'Heaven' is backed by remixes from Matthew Dear, Blawan, Owlle and Steps To Heaven.

'Delta Machine' will be released on March 26 and was produced by Ben Hillier and mixed by Flood. It is the band's first LP release since 2009.

These are currently the only UK dates the band have announced as part of 34-date European tour which will include appearances at Rock Werchter Festival in Belgium (July 7), BBK Festival in Spain (July 11) and Optimus Alive Festival in Portugal (July 13). A North American tour will follow later in the year.